The low-mass, highly accreting black hole associated with the active galactic nucleus 2XMM J123103.2+110648

Optical spectra and images taken with the Baade 6.5m Magellan telescope confirm that 2XMM J123103.2+110648, a highly variable X-ray source with an unusually soft spectrum, is indeed associated with a type 2 (narrow-line) active nucleus at a redshift of z = 0.11871. The absence of broad Hα or Hβ emission in an otherwise X-ray unabsorbed source suggests that it intrinsically lacks a broad-line region. If, as in other active galaxies, the ionized gas and stars in J1231+1106 are in approximate virial equilibrium, and the M _BH - σ_* relation holds, the exceptionally small velocity dispersion of σ = 33.5kms^-1 for [O III] λ5007 implies that M _BH ≈ 10⁵ M _⊙, among the lowest ever detected. Such a low black hole mass is consistent with the general characteristics of the host, a small, low-luminosity, low-mass disk galaxy. We estimate the Eddington ratio of the black hole to be ≳0.5, in good agreement with expectations based on the X-ray properties of the source.